Excreta management devices are known as articles that are designed to be worn principally by incontinence sufferers and in particular by bedridden patients. Such excreta management devices are attached to the perianal area or urethral area of a wearer and are intended to entrap and immediately contain fecal material, urine and other bodily discharges.
A representative excreta management device is disclosed in, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,577,989. It discloses a disposable elimination-trapping bag comprising a sack having an open-top portion and a thin annular oval-shaped flange secured to the sack around the open-top portion. The flange comprises a layer of adhesive material as a means of attaching the disposable bag to a wearer. The disposable bag is specifically designed for attachment to a wearer in the vicinity of the anus.
Another representative excreta management device is disclosed in, e.g. UK Patent Application No. GB 2152387A. It discloses a fecal collector comprising an elongate bag and a flat ring. The elongate bag comprises a pair of panels of thermoplastic sheet joined at their margins such that the bag has an opening at one end thereof. The surface of the flat ring is coated with a layer of pressure-sensitive and water-resistant adhesive. The inner margin of the flat ring defines a generally circular aperture that is directly aligned with the opening of the elongate bag. The flat ring and the elongate bag are secured together along the inner margin of the ring. The flat ring of the fecal collector is adhesively attached to the perianal area of a wearer.
A problem naturally associated with such a device is its attachment to the human body. The approach mostly used in the field is to provide the device with an adhesive flange sticking to the perianal or urethral area. The complete attachment of the device to the desired area of the skin of a wearer is a key point in the excreta management device comprising an adhesive flange. Incomplete attachment of the device leads to a serious problem, in particular, incomplete collection of feces/urine and leakage of feces/urine. For example, if the adhesive flange of an excreta management device is not completely attached to the skin around an excretory orifice (e.g., an anal orifice or a urethra orifice) of a wearer, excreta such as feces or urine intrude between the flange and the skin, and then substantial pressure occurs toward the flange of the device during the defecation process. Such substantial pressure results in the detachment of the adhesively secured device.
As disclosed in the above prior arts, an adhesive flange used for an excreta management device conventionally has an opening positioned at the center of the flange, and comprises a substrate continuously surrounding the opening and an adhesive layer supported by the substrate. The substrate to support the adhesive layer conventionally is made from inelastic materials such as nonwoven materials, foams or plastic films. The adhesive layer is applied on the substrate such that the adhesive layer continuously surrounds the opening. Therefore, the adhesive flange is adhesively attached to the skin in whole circumference of an excretory orifice when the device is worn.
In such a conventional adhesive flange, it has been recognized that the adhesive flange often/sometimes detaches from the wearer's skin during use of the device due to skin movement caused by a wearer's motion such as walking, crawling, running, sitting and defecating. This is because the adhesive flange does not sufficiently conform to such movement of the skin of a wearer due to inelasticity of the substrate of the adhesive flange continuously attached to the skin in whole circumference of an excretory orifice. If intense skin movements happen during use of the device, the conventional substrate tends to prevent the adhesive flange from following such skin movements. This results in partial/complete detachment (i.e., the above-mentioned “incomplete attachment”) of the adhesive flange from the wearer's skin. Such detachment leads to incomplete-collection/leakage of excreta, and often/sometimes makes the wearer feel even skin pain when the detachment of the adhesive flange happens. Particularly, detachment of the adhesive flange at a perineum (i.e., region between an anus and a urethral orifice) tends to provide the wearer with serious skin pain since a perineum is usually very sensitive.
In case of female wearers having genitalia at a perineum, attachment of the adhesive flange at a perineum provides serious discomfort. In addition, discharged urine tends to flow to a perineum since a female wearer has a urethral orifice close to a perineum. This could result in contact of the adhesive layer constituting the adhesive flange with urine. The contact of the adhesive layer with urine facilitates detachment of the adhesive flange at a perineum and leads to deterioration of the adhesive layer.
Accordingly, there still exists a need for an excreta management device which conforms movement of a wearer such that the device continues to be surely attached to the desired area of the skin of a wearer during use of the device, and which does not provide a wearer with discomfort and skin pain during use of the device.